The next morning found Priya and I nervously standing in the middle of the street. In the morning’s cool, our families had swept every inch of our assigned area - front yards, back yards, inside abandoned houses - trying to get it 100% enemy-free. I was sure a few things had returned since then, but hopefully not many.

No one was sure what new threat would appear today, but the presence of a new enemy didn’t mean we could ignore the rams. The dumbass things needed to be taken care of, or people would die.

That fact didn’t make it easy to stand there in the open, not knowing what would come for us. I would have greatly preferred to observe the new enemy from a distance and try to get an idea of what it could do before we fought it, but that was a luxury we didn’t have this time. I tried to comfort myself - not only was I one of only a handful of people in our area with four abilities and the accompanying strength, speed, and toughness, I had Priya at my back. Whatever appeared, we’d almost certainly be able to handle it together.

We’d rigged a holster on my shoulder for a walkie-talkie, spending our precious battery charge on this outing to be sure we could give and receive critical information. It crackled to life. “One minute to Deadline,” came Pointy’s clear squeak.

Her message was echoed several times over as other people on the walkie-talkie network bounced it to the farthest reaches of the neighborhood.

We’re ready, I told myself. Way more ready than we were for the last wave. We’ve got this. We’re prepared.

Either Priya or I took a step, actually bumping into the other’s back. Our simultaneous apologies made me giggle, slightly hysterically. I was trying to get control of myself when the world turned red.

I’m not being figurative - literally, everything I saw was hit with red light so heavy that only hints of other colors were visible. Our clear blue sky had turned to a sort of bright burgundy, and the gray pavement to a red so dark it was almost black.

“What the hell?” I muttered, unsettled. “What kind of monster would do this?”

No sooner had the words left my mouth than the color shifted, red sweeping southward to be replaced by a wash of orange. A second later, yellow.

“Look!” yelled Priya.

I turned, searching for what Priya was indicating with her outstretched sword. The bizarre colors of our neighborhood distracted me, but then a wash of green arrived. My eyes followed the retreating yellow hue to a weird-ass… giant… thing.

A dark column had appeared in the middle of our neighborhood. It was as tall as a skyscraper, but unreasonably thin. Unless it was farther away than I was realizing, it seemed no thicker than a telephone pole. At its top was some kind of glimmering thing - a light, or a crystal, maybe? - that flickered with the only red and orange visible in our yellow-green landscape. The last of the wave of yellow fled from my sight, and an instant later, yellow glimmers began to sparkle amidst the red and orange.

“What is happening?” Priya asked. She turned to look at me as our faces were tinted blue.

I shook my head, helplessly. “This can’t possibly be a monster.”

I wished I felt more certain about that, but couldn’t keep a rising note of question leaking into my voice.

Blue faded to purple, and then the wall of purple retreated toward the towering column. The light looked odd for a moment after it left, but I thought that might simply have been my eyes adjusting to normal sunlight again. Then the sparkling disco ball atop the column burst with a blinding flare of white light.

Literally blinding. I’d been staring right at it, and the intensity of the flash had robbed me of my ability to see. I blinked, trying to get my eyesight back, but I felt disoriented, almost dizzy. All I could make out was a confusing mess of light and shadow.

“I can’t see!” Priya yelled.

“Me either!” I called, then felt foolish. Can’t see? Don’t rely on your sight, then, I chided myself. I said I wasn’t going to forget my other senses.

I took a deep breath and focused on Life Sense. I could pick out Priya, and it seemed we’d moved away from each other in our panic.

“I can sense you,” I called. “Stay still.”

On the heel of my words, a voice spoke into my mind. A voice I’d heard a million years ago - nine days ago - when aliens had turned my life upside down.

Congratulations! If you’re hearing this, you’ve survived the first nine days of the Earth Maffiyir!

The visual alarm you just experienced was to alert you to the creation - and readiness - of the Points Siphons, a new opportunity for humanity! If a contestant holds the gem at the base for 12 minutes, they’ll siphon 12 points from every other contestant in its radius.

After a successful use, the Points Siphon will go dormant for 24 hours. The alarm will display when it becomes ready for use again.

Face the challenges before you to grow in strength and earn rewards. Good luck!

“Did you just hear that?” asked Priya.

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s gonna be a– look out!”

I lunged as I spoke, shoving Priya aside and trying to brace my shield against the ground and activate Parry. I was just barely in time to intercept the ram I felt charging her, and even my ability activation didn’t work miracles. It had hopefully reinforced my shield and dampened the force I felt, but it didn’t erase it entirely. My lunge had left me unbalanced, and the force of the ram’s impact sent me sprawling to the ground. Nothing felt broken, though, and I hurried to pick myself up.

“Meghan?” called Priya, her voice frightened.

“Just stay still,” I said. I’d have to try my best to protect her. Neither of us could see, but Life Sense made up for that, partly. Where was the damn ram? I couldn’t sense it nearby. I tried to keep near Priya in case the ram targeted her again.

I had only a moment’s warning, but I was waiting this time. I managed to interpose myself and brace my shield. I tried to quickly follow it up with an Assisted Strike, but the outcome was predictably poor: if I couldn’t see or sense exactly where a target was, the ability wouldn’t figure it out for me. Life Sense let me know where the ram was, approximately, but it wasn’t precise or detailed. My sword hit the animal’s helmet-like skull and bounced off, and then the ram moved out of my Life Sense range. A worry flitted through my mind - had I damaged the blade again? - but I couldn’t focus on it. I needed to kill this thing before it killed us.

My vision was returning, if slowly. If I could block its charges for another minute or two, Priya or I should have recovered enough to kill it. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I sat poised, ready to spring into action the moment I sensed its return.

Instead I heard the noise of a door opening, followed by an odd crackle and a smell of burning and chlorine.

“Mom, can you not see either? Mr. George was looking outside and his eyes got hurt and he can’t see, so I got worried about you.”

“Hurt?” Priya’s voice. “Hurt! Of course! I’m an idiot!” I could sense her moving toward me, then I felt the touch of her pebbled hand against my face. My vision cleared. Oh. Healing Touch. Duh.

The first thing I saw was the spire, gem glowing visibly even in the daylight. I didn't dwell on the sight, turning toward my house. Micah was standing in the doorway, hands outstretched as he put Shockwall after Shockwall in front of an advancing ram. Each electric wall made it twitch and slow, but it was getting closer. I hurried after it and activated Assisted Strike. This time, my sword slipped deep inside the animal.

It died instantly, but plunging my steel sword into a wall of electricity was possibly not my brightest move. My arm spasmed and I dropped the weapon. I stared at it on the ground, shaking out my numb hand. That was lucky. My sword might have been damaged, but that was the least I deserved for essentially sticking a fork in an electrical socket. Priya came up behind me and touched the back of my neck. Feeling returned to my hand. She didn’t call me dumb; she’d probably been right behind me, seeing that thing move toward my child.

“Thank you, Micah,” I said, struggling to keep my voice calm. “You shouldn’t have come out here, but… thank you. Get inside. We’ll be fine now.”

He didn’t obey right away. “You can see?” He asked.

“Yeah. We can see. Now GET INSIDE.”

He listened this time.

I turned back to my friend, who was staring at the spire. In the distance, I could see more specks of light - tiny, but still clearly visible. I assumed those were more spires, their thin supporting columns too hard to make out at this distance.

“They’re going to kill each other,” said Priya.

“Yeah,” I said. “The rams are still spawning, too. Maybe I should clear our section alone?”

Priya looked at me as though I was crazy. “Why?”

“People will be twitchy today. They'll be on edge, looking for a new monster… I don’t want anyone to see you and get the wrong idea.”

Priya glanced around. “I don’t see any new monsters.”

“It could be something stealthy, like the badblankets.” It sounded unlikely, even as I said it. The aliens had made quite the spectacle of their Points Siphon.

Then again, maybe that was what they wanted me to think.

She shook her head. “Even if there are new monsters, I should come. I’ve healed you twice today, already.”

I wanted to argue with that, but I waited too long. Priya started walking, and she waved her sword in the air as she did. “I don’t want you to die, either. Come on: let’s do our work.”

Part of me wanted to race immediately over to the Points Siphon - to do what, I wasn’t sure - but I followed Priya. The rams were still a danger. We’d keep our commitment to protecting people.

And while we were doing that, I’d do my damndest to figure out if there was any way I could stop my neighbors from killing each other for points.